Device for securing a container to the underframe of a railway car



Filed Feb. 5., 196e Mamba; 1970 UT'. J.- swEGE-R 3,498,238

DEVICE Fon SECURING A CONTAINER To THE UNDERFRAME 0F A RAILWAY GAR 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 DEVICE Filed Feb. 5, 1968 r J. swEGl-:R 3,498,233 FOR SECURING A CONTAINER TO THE UNDERFRAME 0F A RAILWAY CAR 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 March 3, 1970 DEVICE FOR sEcuRING A CONTAINER To THE UNDERFRAME 0F A RAILWAY CAR 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Feb. 5. 1968 United States Patent 3,498,238 DEVICE FOR SECURING A CONTAINER TO THE UNDERFRAME OF A RAILWAY CAR Theodore J. Sweger, Naperville, Ill., assigner to Iliinois Railway Equipment Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Feb. 5, 1968, Ser. No. 703,005 Int. Cl. B61d 45/00 U.S. Cl. S-366 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A latch hook is automatically moved from an unlatched position on a housing secured to the underframe of a railway car to a latched position with a bottom container fitting, is released manually from the latched position, automatically moves to unlatched position on removal of the container, and can be swung manually to a concealed position below the deck or floor of the car.

This invention is an improvement over the constructions disclosed in Sweger application Ser. No. 691,313, filed Dec. 18, 1967 and Nadherny application Ser. No. 699,414 filed Jan 22, 1968.

Among the objects of this invention are: To provide for automatically locking a container to the underframe of a railway car on application of the container thereto; to employ a latch hook for this purpose having a hook portion for entering an opening in a side wall of a bottom container fitting; to lock the latch hook in latched'position; to unlock the latch hook and perm-it it to move to unlatched position on removal of the container; to operate latch hook locking means from the unlocked position thereof toward the locked position on removal of the container from the latch hook; to mount the latch hook on a housing that is rotatable in a frame secured to the underframe of a railway car or the like froman operative position above the deck or floor of the car to an inoperative position therebelow; and to provide a cover for overlying the latch hook and housing in` the inoperative position and underlying the housing in the operative position.

According to this invention a latch hook is arranged to have a hook portion in latched position engage a side wall of a bottom container fitting through on opening therein. A latch hook is provided for each fitting. Each latch hook is movably mounted on a housing that is secured to the underframe of a railway car and is biased toward unlatched position by a torsion bar. The latch hook is swung to latched position on application of a container thereagainst the biasing action of the torsion bar. The latching hook has a locking ledge engageable by a locking section of a locking shaft which is rotatably mounted on the housing for locking the latch hook in latched position. The locking shaft is manually rotatable to move the locking section out of the path of the locking ledge and into engagement with a shoulder on the latch hook. An overcenter spring biases the locking shaft toward its locked or unlocked position. On manual rotation of the locking shaft to the unlocked position, the container can be removed from the latch hook which rotates to the unlatched position under the biasing action of the torsion bar. The shoulder on the latch hook rotates the locking section of the locking shaft toward its locking position. It is held in an intermediate cocked position by an intermediate shoulder thereon under the biasing action of the overcenter spring. On application of the container to the latch hook, the latch hook is rotated to the latched position, the intermediate shoulder is moved out of the path of the locking section of the locking shaft and it is rotated by the overcenter spring to overlie the locking ledge and hold the latch hook in latched position. The housing is rotatably mounted on a frame that is secured to the underframe of the railway car and is flush with or below the deck or floor thereon. A cover also is rotatably mounted on the frame and, in closed position, is flush with the top surface of the deck or oor. After the cover is swung to the open position, the housing and hook can be swung from a retracted or inoperative position below the surface of the deck or floor to an intermediate position. The cover then is closed and the housing and hook are swung to the operative position where they overlie the cover in closed position.

In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective of the floor of a railway fiat car arranged to receive detachably one or more containers for lading. FIG. 2 is a perspective view, at an enlarged scale, of a corner of the container and the hollow bottom container fittings secured thereto. FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the container locking means in operative position. FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view .taken generally along the line 4 4 of FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a Vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 6-6 of FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6 but showing by full lines the container locking means in the retracted position and by broken lines the intermediate position thereof. FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 8 8 of FIG. 7.

In FIG. l a railway fiat car is indicated, generally, at 10. It is provided with a oor or deck 11 that is formed of transversely extending floor boards 12. The floor or deck 11 is carried by underframe 13, FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, which includes top flanges 14 which underlie the floor boards 12. There is indicated, generally, at 15 a rectangular container one or more of which is arranged to be transported by the railway flat car 10. At each corner of the container 15 there is a hollow bottom container fitting as indicated, generally, at 16. It may be a malleable iron casting. As shown in FIG. 2 the bottom container fitting 16 has a vertical slot 17 in one side wall I18. The bott-om container fitting |16 also includes a bottom wall 19 and a side wall 20, the walls 18, 19 and 20 being at right angles to each other. Use is made of the vertical slot 17 in the side wall 18 for securing the container 15 in the position on the oor or deck [1-1 and to underframe 13.

For this purpose there is provided container locking means that is indicated, generally, at 21 in FIGS. 3-8. The container locking means 21 includes metallic frame means, indicated generally at 22, and of channel shape. The metallic frame means 22 is formed by left and right members of steel plate with upstanding sides 23 and an interconecting bottom web 24 which is welded, as indicated at 25 in FIG. 5, to the underframe 13 and particularly to the top flanges 14 thereof. There is provided a rectangular opening 26, FIG. 6, in the bottom web 24 one side of which is indicated at 27.

For covering the metallic frame means 22 a cover 28 is employed. It is a malleable iron casting and has integral laterally extending trunnions 29 that project through openings 30 in one end 31 of the metallic frame means 22. A recess 32 is provided in the cover 28 intermediate the sides as shown in FIG. 3 for a p-urpose that will be referred to presently. Cut away portions 33 are formed in the upstanding sides 23 to permit the cover 28 in closed position to lie iiush with the surface of the fioor boards 12.

At the other end 35 of the metallic frame means 22, FIG. 5, openings 36 are provided in the upstanding sides 23 for receiving laterally extending trunnions 37 which are formed integrally with an extension 38 of housing means indicated, generally, at 39. The housing means 39 is a malleable iron casting. The housing means 39 has a floor 40 for receiving the bottom wall 19 of the container fitting 16 as indicated in FIG. 6. Also the housing means 39 has upstanding side walls 41 and 42 at right angles to each other and to the oor 40 for overlying the side walls 18 and 20 of the container fitting 16. A wall 43 extends downwardly from the floor 40. In the operative position as shown in FIG. 6 the Wall 43 extends toward the upper side of the cover 28. Intermediate its ends the wall 43 has a projection 44 for fitting into the recess 32 in the cover 28 to limit sidewise movement of the housing means 39 with respect to the cover 28.

As illustrated in FIGS. and 6 the upstanding side wall 41 of the housing means 39 has a vertical slot 47Nthrough which latch hook means 48 can move. The latch hook means 48 is a malleable iron casting. It includes a hook portion 49 for extending through the vertical slot 17 in the side wall 18 of the container fitting 16 and overlying the bottom thereof to hold the container in position on the floor 40. One end 50 of a torsion bar 51 having a square cross section carries the latch hook means 48 and is nonrotatably secured thereto. The other end 52 of the torsion bar 51 is nonrotatably secured in a suitable opening in a side -wall 53 of the housing means 39L which extends at right angles from the depending wall 43. Slotted guide anges 54 and 55, FIG. 5, cast integrally with the floor 40 are located on opposite sides of the lower portion of the latch hook means 48 and serve to guide it and the torsion bar 51 in movement between the unlatched and latched positions. The relation between the latch hook means 48 and the torsion bar 51 is such that normally the latch hook means is biased to the unlatched position shown by broken lines in FIG. 6. Thus the latch hook means 48 is rotatably mounted on the housing means 39 and is biased in the counterclockwise direction by the torsion bar 51.

Formed integrally with the latch hook means 48 is a laterally extending wall 56, FIG. 7, having a top surface 57, FIG. 6, to receive the bottom wall 19 of the container fitting 16 when the container 15 is lowered into place on the floor or deck 11 of the car 10. The weight of the container 15 is sufficient to rotate the latch hook means 48 from the broken line position shown in FIG. 6 to the full line latched position where the hook portion 49 extends through the vertical slot 17 in the side wall 18. This rotation of the latch hook means 48 occurs against the biasing action of the torsion bar 51. As soon as the container 15 is lifted from engagement with the floor 40 and the top surface 57, the torsion bar 51 acts to rotate the latch hook means 48 toward the Unlatched position.

It is important that the latch hook means 48 be locked in the latched position shown in FIG. 6. For this purpose the locking ledge 58 is provided on the laterally extending wall 56 for cooperation with locking means indicated, generally, at 59 and carried by the housing means 39. The locking means 59 includes a locking shaft 60 which may be a steel rod. One end 61 of the locking shaft 60 is rotatably mounted, FIG. 3, in a slot 62 in the side wall 53 of the housing means 39. The other end 63 of the locking shaft 60 is rotatably mounted in an opening 64 that is formed in the lower portion of the side wall 42. A bottom plate 65 suitably secured, as by welding, overlies the underside of the housing means 39 and holds captive the end 63 of the locking shaft 60. The bottom plate 65 underlies the lower ends of the slotted guide anges 54 and 55 and also the lower end of the latch hook means 48 to hold the same captive. The locking shaft 60 has an offset locking section 66 that is arranged, as shown in FIG. 6, to overlie the locking ledge 58 in the locked position of the hook means 48 and to be located between the locking ledge 58 and theunderside of the oor 40. Thus, when the offset locking section 66 is in the locked position, the

latch hook means 48 is securely latched to the container fitting 16.

In order to hold the offset locking section 66 in the locking position and to hold it in an unlocked position an overcenter coil tension spring 67 is employed. One end 68 of the coil tension spring 67 is secured to the offset locking section 66. The other end 69 of the coil tension spring 67 is secured to a transverse anchor pin 70 which is located in a recess 71, FIG. 5, that is formed in the lower portion of the side wall 41 of the housing means 39. For rotating the locking shaft to the unlocked positon a handle 72 is employed. The handle 72 is an extension of the locking shaft 60 and is formed by bending it at right angles to the position shown, for example, in FIG. 5. Instead of the handle 72 the locking shaft 60 can be formed with a square or hexagonal end to receive a suitable wrench.

In order to unlock the latch hook means 48 from the position shown in FIG. 6 it is necessary to rotate manually the locking shaft 60. This is accomplished by rotating the handle 72 from the locked position in a clockwise direction indicated lby the arrows 73 to rotate the offset locking section 66 from its overlying position with the locking ledge 58 to the position shown by broken lines where it engages a shoulder 74 that projects from the laterally extending wall 56 of the latch hook means 48. During the rotation of the handle 72 the overcenter coil tension spring 67 is further stressed and it moves past the center position to an overcenter position in which the offset locking section 66 is held against the shouled 74. Now when the container 15 is lifted and the bottom wall 19 of the container fitting 16 no longer engages the top surface 57 of the wall 56, the torsion bar 51 acts to rotate the latch hook means 48 in a counterclockwise direction, This is permitted since there is sufficient clearance between the hook portion 49 and the lower end of the vertical slot 17 in the side wall 18 of the container fitting 16. As the latch hook means 48 is rotated toward the unlatched position, the shoulder 74 in engagement with the offset locking section 66 of the locking shaft 60 causes it to rotate and the overcenter coil tension spring 67 to be moved past vthe center position with the result that the offset locking section 66 is rotated into a cocked position in engagement with an intermediate shoulder '75, FIG. 4, with the offset locking section 66 resting in a notch 76 between the shoulder 74 and the intermediate shoulder 75. The overcenter coil tension spring 67 holds the offset locking section 66 in this cocked position. The latch hook means 48 remains in the cocked position as shown in FIG. 4 until the container 15 is lowered into position. When the bottom Wall 19 of the container fitting 16 engages the top surface 57 of the laterally extending wall 56, the latch hook means is rotated in a clockwise direction. The intermediate shoulder 75 rotates the offset locking section 66 against the tension of the overcenter -coil tension spring 67 slightly in a clockwise direction until the distal end of the intermediate shoulder 75 clears the offset locking section Then the coil tension spring 67 rotates the offset locklng section 66 and the locking shaft 60 to the locked position shown in FIG. 6 with the handle 72 being swung from the cocked position shown in FIG. 4 to be locked position shown in FIG. 6.

In orderto permit the housing means 39 and parts mounted thereon to be swung from the operative position shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 5 and 6 to the retracted position shown in FIGS. 7 and8, a slot 77 is provided, FIG. 4, in the adjacent side 23 of the metallic frame means 22 and in the bottom web 24 thereof. For shifting the housing means 39 from the operative position it first is rotated in a` counterclockwise direction to the position shown by broken lines in FIG. 7. Then the cover 28 is opened to the vertical position shown by broken lines. The locking means 59 is in the cocked position. The housing means 39 is rotated in a clockwise direction as indicated hy arrows 78 through the rectangular opening 26 in the bottom web 24 until the bottom plate 65 engages the side '27 of the opening 26 as shown in FIG. 7. Then the cover 28 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction as indicated by arrows 79 to overlie the retracted mechanism.

What is claimed as new is:

1. Container securing means for a railway car arranged to secure thereto one or more containers each having at least one bottom container fitting with a latch receiving opening in a wall thereof, said container securing means comprising housing means for attachment to said railway car for underlying each bottom container tting,

latch means movably mounted on said housing means and having a portion for entering said opening in said wall of said container fitting, and

means for automatically moving said latch means to latched position with respect to said opening in said wall in response to application of said container thereto,

locking means for holding said latch means in said latched position in response to application of said container thereto,

means for operating said locking means to an unlocked position to permit said latch portion to move out of said opening in said side Wall of said bottom container fitting on removal of said container,

means on said latch means for operating said locking means from said unlocked position toward said locked position on removal of said container from said latch means,

spring means biasing said latch means toward unlatched position, and

overcenter spring means biasing said locking means toward the locked or unlocked position thereof.

2. Container securing means for a railway car arranged to secure thereto one or more containers each having at least one bottom container fitting with a latch receiving opening in a wall thereof, said container securing means comprising housing means for attachment to said railway car for underlying each bottom container tting,

latch means movably mounted on said housing means and having a portion for entering said opening in said wall of said container iitting,

a torsion bar anchored at one end to said housing means and at the other end to said latch means to bias the same to unlatched position,

a locking ledge on said latch means,

a locking shaft rotatably mounted on said housing means including a locking section for engaging said locking ledge to hold said latch means in latched position, and

an overcenter spring reacting between said housing means and said locking shaft to bias said locking section toward the locked or unlocked position thereof.

3. Container securing means according to claim 2 wherein a shoulder on said latch means reacts against said locking section of said locking shaft and rotates the same from said unlocked position toward said locked position on removal of said container from said latch hook means.

4. Container securing means according to claim 3 wherein handle means on said locking shaft facilitates rotation thereof to said unlocked position.

5. Container locking means for the oor of a railway hat car carried by an underframe, said container locking means being arranged to secure to said iloor one or more containers each having at least one bottom container fitting with a latch receiving opening in a side wall, said container locking means comprising frame means adapted to be secured to said underframe and below the surface of said oor,

a cover hinged to one end of said frame means and swingable from a closed position overlying said frame means and flush with said surface of said oor to an open position,

housing means hinged to the other end of said frame means and swingable from a stored position below said surface of said floor, when said cover is in said open position, to an intermediate position in which said cover can be swung to said closed position and from which said housing means can be swung to an operative position overlying said cover in said closed position,

latch hook means movably mounted on said housing means and having a hook portion for entering said opening in said side wall of said container iitting, and

means for automatically moving said latch hook means to latched position with respect to said opening in said side wall in response to application of said container thereto.

6. Container locking means according to claim 5 wherein locking means are provided on said housing means for holding said latch hook means in said latched position in response to application of said container theret0.

7. Container locking means according to claim 6 wherein means are provided for operating said locking means to an unlocked position to permit said hook portion to move out of said opening in said side |wall .of said bottom container fitting on removal of said container.

S. `Container locking means according to claim 7 wherein means on said latch hook means eifect operation of said locking means from said unlocked position toward said locked position on removal of said container from said latch hook means.

9. Container locking means according to claim 8 wherein spring means on said housing means bias said latch hook means toward unlatched position, and

overcenter spring means on said housing means bias said locking means toward the locked or unlocked position thereof.

10. Container locking means according to claim 9 wherein said frame means includes a pair of spaced upstanding walls apertured at each end,

said cover has trunnions extending from opposite sides at one end into the apertures at one end of said upstanding walls, and

said housing means has trunnions extending from opposite sides at one end into the apertures at the other end of said upstanding walls.

11. Container locking means according to claim 5 wherein said frame means has upstanding sides connected by a bottom web, and

said bottom web has an opening into which said housing means can be swung below the upper surface of said iioor and held in said stored position on engagement with an edge of said bottom web.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,471,111 l0/1923 Eder 10S-366 1,966,492 7/1934 Fildes 10S-366 2,424,429 7/ 1947 Bamberg 214--75 3,399,921 9/1968 Trost et al. 296-35 3,401,646 9/1968 OLeary 105-368 DRAYTON E. HOFFMAN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 248-3 61 

